Appearing on MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday, the New York Times’ Josh Barro dismissed the ongoing controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server as “all just background noise.”
Barro, who also serves as an MSNBC contributor, downplayed the Clintons' scandalous past because “[e]verybody’s formulated an opinion about whether they think the Clintons are above board or whether they care about whether the Clintons are above board or not.”
Despite revelations that Hillary’s private e-mail server contained classified documents, Barro maintained that it won’t hurt her in any way, and the campaign does not believe Clinton will face any legal repercussions:
I can't imagine this breaking through in a way that the previous 25 or 35 scandals did, unless she were to be indicted, which I do not think is going to happen and I have no reason to believe would happen and I don’t think the campaign has any reason to believe would happen.
The MSNBC contributor, who “was once a libertarian” but now identifies as a “neoliberal” blamed the “media" which "trumps all of this up because it is good television” but ultimately Barro spun that voters wont care whether or not Clinton used a private server that contained classified documents:
Although there’s always the element of well, why did you do this thing? Why did you have a private e-mail server? It starts from some little thing, and then the question is, is it something that’s big enough that people care. And my guess is that it is not something that is not big enough that people care.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
August 17, 2015
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Josh Barro, Tom Harkin, former Iowa senator endorsed Hillary Clinton, said it's too late, said the other day, it's too late for Joe Biden or anyone else to get in, this race is already locked. And he's pretty confident that none of this stuff is going to take her out of that number one position.
JOSH BARRO: We're nearing 40 years of Clinton scandals, going all the way back to 1978 and the cattle futures. The Clintons have been embroiled in scandal longer than I have been alive. And at this point it's all just background noise. Everybody’s formulated an opinion about whether they think the Clintons are above board or whether they care about whether the Clintons are above board or not. And I can't imagine this breaking through in a way that the previous 25 or 35 scandals did, unless she were to be indicted, which I do not think is going to happen and I have no reason to believe would happen and I don’t think the campaign has any reason to believe would happen.
So I think, certainly, I think Hillary's perspective is, if it weren't this it would be something else. And they think the media trumps all of this up because it is good television and certainly Republicans trump it up because they think that it can undermine the Clintons and there is an element to that. Although there’s always the element of well, why did you do this thing? Why did you have a private e-mail server? It starts from some little thing, and then the question is, is it something that’s big enough that people care. And my guess is that it is not something that is not big enough that people care.
